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50 free Glastonbury Festival trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Glastonbury Festival trivia quiz covers the world's most famous greenfield festival, from the September Saturday in 1970 when dairy farmer Michael Eavis charged £1 to see T. Rex on Worthy Farm, through the 1971 Fair with its Pyramid Stage built over a blind spring, the CND years, the 1994 fire and record crowd, the mud of 1997, the superfence of 2002 and the fallow years that let the fields recover. There are questions on the ground itself, between Pilton and Pylle in the Vale of Avalon, on the Green Fields and Stone Circle, on the charities Oxfam, Greenpeace and WaterAid, and on the sets that made history: Radiohead in the rain, Orbital on Channel 4, Beyoncé, the Rolling Stones, Stormzy, Billie Eilish as youngest headliner, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Coldplay's record fifth headline slot, Rod Stewart in the Legends slot and the 2026 fallow year. Some are easy for anyone who has watched the BBC coverage; others will test people who have queued at the Pennard Hill toilets. Every answer is checked against Wikipedia's articles on the festival, its founder and individual years, and each explanation adds one further fact. Great for music quiz nights and campsite arguments.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the name of the Eavis family land where Glastonbury Festival is held?
Worthy Farm
It sits between the villages of Pilton and Pylle in Somerset, about six miles east of the town of Glastonbury.
Q 02Which farmer founded the festival in 1970?
Michael Eavis
A Methodist-raised dairy farmer born in Pilton in 1935, he was knighted at Windsor Castle in early 2024.
Q 03Which concert inspired Eavis to hold his first festival?
Led Zeppelin at Bath in 1970
He saw the open-air show at the nearby Bath and West Showground and staged his own event that September.
Q 04How much did a ticket cost for the first festival in 1970?
£1
About 1,500 people came on Saturday 19 September 1970 to the event then called the Pilton Festival.
Q 05Which act replaced the Kinks at short notice to headline the 1970 festival?
Tyrannosaurus Rex
Marc Bolan's band, later T. Rex, topped a bill that also included Stackridge, who returned in 2008.
Q 06How many people attended the very first festival on 19 September 1970?
1,500
It was billed as the Pop, Blues & Folk Festival; the site now covers 1,500 acres and hosts around 200,000.
Q 07The 1971 main stage was a one-tenth replica of what?
The Great Pyramid of Giza
Bill Harkin built it from scaffolding and metal sheeting over a 'blind spring' located by dowsing.
Q 08Which future rock icon played the 1971 Glastonbury Fair and headlined the Pyramid Stage in 2000?
David Bowie
The 1971 fair, filmed by Nicolas Roeg and David Puttnam, also featured Traffic, Hawkwind and Melanie.
Q 09With which campaigning organisation was the festival organised from 1981?
CND
1981 was the first profitable year, and Eavis gave the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament £20,000.
Q 10What did the permanent 1981 Pyramid Stage double as during the winter?
A hay barn and cowshed
It was built from telegraph poles and Ministry of Defence metal sheeting.
Q 11When licences became compulsory in 1983, what was Glastonbury's first crowd limit?
30,000
It has grown every year since to well over 100,000; in 1984 fans invaded the stage during the Smiths.
Q 12What happened to the Pyramid Stage just over a week before the 1994 festival?
It burned down
A temporary main stage was built in time, and the same year brought a 150 kW wind turbine.
Q 13Which band's Friday set in 1994 drew Glastonbury's record crowd of as many as 300,000?
Levellers
Numbers were swollen by gatecrashers; Channel 4's first full TV coverage that year also made Orbital's rave set legendary.
Q 21Which two acts joined Kanye West as headliners in 2015?
Florence and the Machine and The Who
Florence had been second on the bill until Foo Fighters dropped out.
Q 22Which grime artist headlined the Pyramid Stage in 2019?
Stormzy
The Killers and the Cure completed the bill after the fallow year of 2018, and a giant crane from Avonmouth Docks joined the site.
Q 23Who became Glastonbury's youngest ever headliner in 2022?
Billie Eilish
Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar headlined the other nights, and Diana Ross played the Legends slot.
Q 14Which broadcaster took over TV coverage from Channel 4 in 1997?
The BBC
The Guardian sponsored the same year, and the BBC renewed exclusive rights again in 2017.
Q 15Whose muddy Saturday Pyramid set in 1997 is often called Glastonbury's greatest ever?
Radiohead
The BBC put their live 'Paranoid Android' on a CD titled Mud For It.
Q 16What was the nickname of the barrier installed by Mean Fiddler in 2002 that cut gatecrashing?
The superfence
Numbers dropped so much that 2002 was criticised for lacking atmosphere; Coldplay headlined for the first time.
Q 17Which pop star was forced to pull out of headlining Sunday 2005 after a breast cancer diagnosis?
Kylie Minogue
Basement Jaxx replaced her; the 112,500 tickets that year sold out in 3 hours 20 minutes.
Q 18Which rapper headlined the Saturday of Glastonbury 2008?
Jay-Z
Kings of Leon and the Verve took the other nights, and buyers had to pre-register with a passport photo.
Q 19Beyoncé's 2011 Sunday headline made her the first woman to top the bill since which year?
1999
U2 and Coldplay took the Friday and Saturday, and tickets sold out in four hours.
Q 20Why did Foo Fighters withdraw from headlining in 2015?
Dave Grohl broke his leg falling off a stage
Florence and the Machine were promoted to Friday headliner and the Libertines filled her slot.
Q 24Which three headliners of 2023 drew criticism for an all-male top billing?
Elton John, Guns N' Roses and Arctic Monkeys
Tickets had sold out in one hour.
Q 25In 2024 which band broke the record for most Glastonbury headline appearances, with a fifth?
Coldplay
They overtook the Cure's four; Dua Lipa and SZA headlined the other nights.
Q 26How quickly did tickets for Glastonbury 2025 sell out in November 2024?
35 minutes
They cost £373.50 plus a £5 booking fee, and the festival donated £5.2 million to charity that year.
Q 27Which veteran singer played the Sunday Legends slot in 2025, 23 years after his only other appearance?
Rod Stewart
He had headlined in 2002 alongside Coldplay and Stereophonics; the 1975, Neil Young and Olivia Rodrigo headlined 2025.
Q 28Which headliner briefly pulled out of 2025 in January, claiming the festival was 'now under corporate control' because of the BBC partnership?
Neil Young
He was confirmed as the first headliner two days later.
Q 29Why was no Glastonbury Festival held in 2026?
A planned fallow year to let the land recover
It was the first planned fallow year since 2018; 2020 and 2021 were lost to COVID-19, and the festival was scheduled to return in 2027.
Q 30Which three charities have been the festival's main beneficiaries since the end of the Cold War?
Oxfam, Greenpeace and WaterAid
Most festival staff are unpaid volunteers, which is how millions of pounds reach charity each year.